For our first ever night camping in our new van we didn't venture far from our starting point, McLaren Falls park was a quick 40 minutes drive from Tauranga along well paved roads. It might have been the time of year or the drizzly weather but the place was pretty deserted. McLaren Falls is split into 3 main camping sites, Pin Oak, Top Flat and Hamilton Point; after driving around the site the latter seemed to have the best view so we found a space and settled in. At $22 per person per night it was on the more expensive side, this combined with the minimal facilities of just one toilet might have became an issue if we didn't have the entire site to ourselves... if you don't count all the ducks that came to join us. Apart from a quick game of bat and ball our afternoon was pretty sedate - the weather was changing too quickly for us to risk heading out for a walk.
The morning after we woke up bright and early, refreshed and...cold. Well that wasn't ideal, but with nothing that could be done at that moment we decided to warm up by going for a walk instead. There was several tracks we could have headed down but we decided to go and see the waterfall, the glow worm track being a bit redundant during the day. The path first meandered by the river where we were gently mobbed by hopeful ducks and one slightly insistent goose that wanted the bread we carried, before leading us along a trickling stream and into the woods. Despite walking along a gravel path the woods had an ancient air that made me feel like we were miles into the wilderness, the moss covered trees loomed above the path only letting the smallest trickle of sunlight through. The waterfall we came across wasn't the biggest nor the most impressive but it was the first place we adventured to in our new van and that made it all the more special.
Warmed up from the walk, we scarfed down some breakfast before going through the motions of setting up the van for the day. The bed turned into a table, anything loose was tucked away and the hatches are of course battened. The first night in the van was a success, time to continue the adventure.
As our next destination was a healthy 115km away we decided to stop half way through to continue the search for blankets. We decided on Katikati, a rural town that's apparently covered in murals that we couldn't spot because of the constant rain, what we did spot was the plentiful charity shops that we needed to rummage through. Shopping was a success and we left Katikati richer in blankets and pillows, plus the handmade pots we would quickly turn into our quirky spice rack.
Unfortunately we got caught in roadwork traffic on our way out of town which added a whopping hour onto our drive time, we could have turned around a driven a different way but the shortest of those routes would have added at least an hour and a half so sitting in traffic seemed like the better option. Besides, if google maps says the other route would be two and a half hours in total we know it would be closer to four, and that's down to the roads rather than the speeds we can reach!
Not yet feeling brave enough to venture out on our own and try freedom camping, our next destination was another campground this time in Opoutere, a village so tiny that we managed to miss it entirely while on the small potholed track to the camp. At $16 each for an unpowered site but access to kitchens, bathrooms and showers it seemed like a bargain compared to the last site. There was a games room that was open to us but it felt like the beginning of a horror film, broken sofas scattered about, a pingpong table surrounded by broken balls and chipped paddles, a poor dead bird laying off to the side and us practically alone surrounded by woodlands as the mist begun to creep in... needless to say it needed some updating and we didn't spent much time in this particular area of the site.
The nearby beach was beautiful in an eerie deserted way, our only company a matched pair of noisy, red beaked, red eyed demonic looking seabirds that we later found out were called oystercatchers. In either direction the distant landscape was disappearing under a dark grey mist that seemed like it was slowly making its way towards us. After a wander down the beach and back we decided to head back to the van before the rain returned and we got soaked.
After one night at Opoutere we again headed for another hours drive, this time to Hot water beach near the town of Heihei, in the Coromandel. Aptly named for the hot water that bubbles up from under the sand in certain places along the beach, if we'd have timed it right we would have arrived with our shovels around low tide and we'd have been able to dig ourselves a little hot pool to relax in. We didn't arrive at low tide, in fact the tide couldn't have been higher, as we walked along the beach we did find one or two patches of sand under the freezing sea that were hot enough to warm our feet but that was about it. As we were all kitted out in our swimming best we did have a quick dip into the sea, but didn't venture in too far as the weather wasn't really with us.
A quick cold shower to rid of any sand we hopped back in the van and on to the next town of Heihei, home of cathedral cove. First things first, we needed some lunch so we headed towards the village centre and not towards the beach. It was lucky that we did, just as we finished our food it started to completely chuck it down. This is when we realised that it would be a good idea to invest in some good quality wet weather gear, had we started the walk we would have been absolutely soaked and I don't think our rain-macs would have helped us much either. As the rain wasn't easing up we decided to give the hike a miss, but we'll definitely be back for this one!
With nothing else to do we decided to head off to our camp for the night, a freedom camping spot in Cooks Beach. It was our first foray into freedom camping and I have mixed feelings about it. It was three in the afternoon by the time we arrived and even then we were the fourth van to arrive, by ten at night the area felt like a carpark with all of us jammed together, too close for comfort. The location also wasn't the best, a small allocated area in a big field, tucked away from both the town and the surrounding views. I really can't complain though, it was free and there was a toilet within a few minutes walk. By dusk it had stopped raining and we decided to go for a wander past the public toilets and on to the beach. The hazy views of the nearby Shakespeare cliffs were stunning alongside the pastel tones of the sunset.
Once again we woke up slightly cold, not ideal. We also woke up deciding that maybe it was time for some better pillows, I'm all for living simply but that doesn't mean it has to be uncomfortable too and these cushions were not doing the trick! With some improvements to be made we once again trundled onwards.
Trip date: Nov 2022
Next Blog: Over the mountains
Things can only get better…….HOPEFULLY.